22 JULY 2014 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Orchestral color and the unexpected are the key notes of trombonist/bandleader David White’s new album. The band bursts forth immediately with “Mister Shepherd’s Misadventures”, saxophones wailing a theme over the brass section. Saxophonist Sam Dillon digs in for a hot solo accompanied by the pointed jabs of the rhythm section and ‘sings’ on through several choruses, soon complemented by smart accents from the band. Those accents continue over a fiery solo by trumpeter Miki Hirose. The end of the tune comes as a true surprise, the band disappearing and the rhythm section left to riff the basic rhythm to a simple but satisfying end. In one five-minute track, White has utilized the power of the full band, the textures of the sections and that approach that never quite lets on exactly where it’s going. White gives himself only one solo feature, but it’s a beauty. “Persistence”, is, the composer has noted, inspired by Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. It’s a repeated, rhythmic groove over which darkly pitched saxophones and then the whole band play apposite figures. White’s playing is forceful and insistent and as it moves forward the orchestra comes back with more of that rich palette just before and then during the impassioned wailing of alto saxophonist Andrew Gould, who is also featured on “The Shakedown”, a funky, danceable 24-bar composition with a perpetuum mobile feeling. He’s joined by trombonist Dan Reitz for another potent and to-the-point solo. There’s a beautiful ode in White’s “Sally Draper Blues”, a moody, 12-bar blues, dedicated to a character on the popular TV show Mad Men, White’s favorite. The melody is attractively sinuous and insinuating, with Rick Parker, yet another trombonist, taking the first solo. It’s burly and raucous but perfectly in keeping with the color of this piece as a whole. Omar Daniels, on alto, follows suit and takes us for a ride that leaves us breathless and longing for more. There are two other White originals here, both of which add to the sterling repertoire that White has created with a vital big orchestra.

For more information, visit davidwhitejazz.com. This project is at Saint Peter’s Jul. 9th and Tea Lounge Jul. 28th. See Calendar.

Trombonist Steve Davis continues to bear the torch left by bop saxophonist Jackie McLean. Davis is a faculty member at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, where McLean taught for many years and helped foster the careers of Davis and many other up-and-coming jazz musicians. It was McLean who introduced Davis to Art Blakey, beginning a one-year

engagement with the Jazz Messengers, which ended prematurely with the drummer’s death in 1990. That gave Davis his start and he has since backed up other luminaries like Freddie Hubbard and Benny Golson. The trombonist picks up a number of McLean’s protégés on his latest album, among them pianist Larry Willis, bassist Nat Reeves and tenor saxophonist Abraham Burton. Young drummer Billy Williams rounds out the group and adds much stylistic flare. Davis is a standard-bearer of jazz history, a willful student whose compositions swing unequivocally. For Real presents eight such compositions by Davis and one by Willis. The trombonist manages to cover a wide range of the jazz lexicon, from the melodious subtlety of the ballad “Days Gone By” to “Tactics”, a breakneck barnburner in which Williams serves as chief provocateur and a fiery soloist. Here improvisation is key and the blues-based vamping on the title track provides a nice canvas on which Burton and Willis stroke impassioned layers of color. As for compositions, Davis manages to extract every ounce of harmonic richness from the trombone/tenor saxophone dynamic. On “I Found You”, Davis and Burton beautifully weave in and out of one another’s lines, before joining in warm swells. Midtempo numbers like “Angie’s Groove” are particularly pleasing. “Blues On Blues” finds the group settling into a dulcet simmering, Reeves providing deep tonal coziness, coloring the edges while Burton and Davis again contribute powerful solos. Davis’ slick compositions have a cool, lingering quality and with a group of this caliber For Real is an excellent listen.

For more information, visit posi-tone.com. Davis is at Blue Note Jul. 8th-13th with Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band and Dizzy’s Club Jul. 31st-Aug. 3rd with Willie Jones III. See Calendar.

The Czech Republic has been fecund ground for the mixing and melding of folk and classical musical traditions, yielding a steady crop of highly trained and creative musicians. Jiri Stivin, born and still based in Prague, is astonishingly adept at a whole range of recorders, flutes, clarinets, saxophones and even folk whistles. In the European Jazz Trio, an offshoot of German bassist Ali Haurand’s long-standing European Jazz Ensemble (EJE), he joins Haurand and German saxophonist Gerd Dudek, like Haurand an EJE charter member. Cohesive interplay seems to be second nature to these three veterans. Their eponymous debut relies on the elegant improvisational architecture of its frontline. Most of the tunes are Stivin’s—folksy melodies over standard changes. A consummate craftsman, his delivery is never forced while Dudek displays an equally tough but romantic aesthetic and Haurand lopes along in a parallel time zone. Luboš Soukup is a Czech saxophonist and composer who’s been living in Copenhagen, Denmark since 2010. Through the Mirror presents an expanded version of his quartet with German pianist Christian Pabst, Swedish bassist Joel Illerhag and Danish drummer Morten Hæsum, now augmented by four brass, two woodwinds and a string quartet. Soukup’s tenor or soprano sax and Pabst’s piano provide most of the improvisational interest, the extra players serving primarily to thicken the texture, achieving Gil Evans-like effects through widely spaced voicings and unusual percussion. The mood shifts between rhythm-and-bluesy backbeats (some in odd meters), symphonic episodes, Afrobeats in 6/8 time and even an intimate canon performed by the strings. Trumpeter Miroslav Bukovsky, though born in Czechoslovakia, fled his country following the Soviet invasion to arrive in Australia in 1968. Wanderlust, the Sydney-based band he founded, has maintained an active and influential presence since 1991. On Reina De La Pileta they team up with bassist/composer Simon Milman (who also records hiphop under the alter ego Coolio Desgracias) for a set of what might be called high-concept party music. You’ve heard the grooves—reggae, bossa, AfroCuban, swing, flamenco palmas (clapping)—but here they’re filtered through the twin trumpet frontline of Bukovsky and James Greening (mainly heard on trombone), backed by Jeremy Sawkins’ not-so-predictable guitar, Alister Spence’s prepared piano and Fabian Hevia’s pliant percussion.

For more information, visit konnex-records.de, animalmusic.cz and welargeproductions.bandcamp.com

European Jazz Trio Jiri Stivin/Gerd Dudek/Ali Haurand (Konnex)

Through the Mirror Luboš Soukup Ensemble (Animal Music)

Reina De La Pileta Wanderlust Meets Simon Milman

(Queen of the Swimming Pool) by Tom Greenland

GLOBE UNITY: CZECH REPUBLIC

The Chase

David White Jazz Orchestra (Mister Shepherd)by Donald Elfman

July 1st Gary Morgan & Panamericana

July 15th Mike Longo Trio honors

Miles DavisJuly 22nd

Rosemary George and GroupJuly 29th

Warren Smith and the Composer’s Workshop

Orchestra

New York Baha’i Center53 E. 11th Street

(between University Place and Broadway)Shows: 8:00 & 9:30 PM

Gen Adm: $15 Students $10212-222-5159

bahainyc.org/nyc-bahai-center/jazz-night

For Real

Steve Davis (Posi-Tone)by Robert Milburn